THE HALF-HOLIDAY.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11481, 14 January 1903, Page 8

THE HALF-HOLIDAY.

TO THE EDITOB OF THE PRESS. Sir,—The v'w.vrs <A the opponents of the Saturday half-holiday, as put bafore the Mayor, are_ truly amusing, as wd] as the examples of hardship, it would entail, besides bringing black disastrous ruin on the shopkeepers of Christcbiirch. Now I feel for that poor eehodmaster (I waa near beinij on* myself). I think I can help him out «.-f his difficulty. Let him writ J liH cider schoolmasters can write), and post it. The freight trill not amount to his rail fare and city expenses. He can employ the time more profitably in raiding Horace or Virgil or mathematics. Perhaps he enjoys a run round on his own. Necessity is the scapegoat, pleasure the ioa! cause. He n cot alone—the ycung ladies who sb-jp in drapery shops en* a Saturday afternoon and night, 90 per cent, of theft, live within the baits. My experience, of some years standing of businm, done of .1 Saturday evening and afternoon, is that it cou'd be earlier in the week. Repeatedly I have noted the amount of money "I took from seven to ten o'clock p.m. on Saturday, van-ing from five to ten shillings, and rarely reaching twenty shillings; 1 the profit wotiid not pay for gas. The public at present have too great facilities

for making i, e i r prnx-liases, and it U A MJtmeof MiiiMrt, asone of your c ™« "r§m pondems reci-iv pu , t , it . If lhe * closed on Sal^ ay nij , hts whal fM woikinjr. man for amusement , vu' 9 should have >• dieap." but it i. .i'aß amusement for ..he employee under eye of the ,Uy ftn d* effect a «J. U-β the party wlm w i n(s , o v ttmtt ,T.« Another nwttei-1 vsf , the Mayor and <W l W cii will boar in mg is the way MgcatarM *M to the employers YeV ctit ion was obtaiarf Petition foni;s w(\ han ,i ed counters, and not «l y , V ere t!v 3 hands » qrf.t-d to Mjrn. bi. to secure U» "?fl signature of the fusl nuns ivmie of tltf shopkeepers , agents nv v . lsL f ., r , w {0 p;isse!s-by and endw\ ur to jet them t» HI s,gn Th!» rtimULnir-n. Th»4p| banks can do tueir biiness bstwwn \mlb ami three o'clock, the t..<t ortice nine to 7* live, and why not theggeei ccr s mA drapect? i , 'llietv is not a simp in C U ; s tchiirch whe* *? the salts hands have % c t j, an £ fourths of t heir tune The public fl buy to supj.ly their -;,i lts , ulK i jj the shops were < pen B Sunday I\J d<! not think Mr Wardeltvould sell iff 1 twelve months an extra c!:>ct tea I should like to meet the !adyi» gentlenua '•' who would buy an extra roba O r suit just '"' •because the obliging diaper h:Uhi s gas - —Yours, etc*. \ I ' I